Straunge Strondes

There are no surprises here. Alexei Navalny and his anti-corruption team have discovered that longtime Channel 2 (Rossiya 1) news anchor Sergei Brilyov and his wife Irina are on the voting rolls in Notting Hill, and they own an apartment valued at £700,000 in Chiswick.

This is yet another story that somehow has not got through to the imaginary west and the rest of the world. All the Putineers, large and small, are shameless hypocrites. When push finally comes to shoving them into the trashcan of history, the shovers will discover that nearly all the Putineers, including the most powerful and well known, have multiple foreign passports and real estate up the yingyang from Notting Hill to Russian Hill.

The Putineers really, really do not believe the vast country they have been robbing blind, hoodwinking, and subjugating for the last twenty years has a future. So, when push does come to shove, all of them, down to the last woman, child, and man, have been planning to shove off to straunge strondes when that sad yet somehow happy day dawns.

Whether they make it in time to their safe havens or not is another matter.{TRR}

Navalny’s team found Brilyov and his wife Irina on the list of registered voters in London’s Notting Hill district. Under British law, such lists may include British citizens and citizens of EU countries permanently residing in the UK, but not citizens of Russia.

According to FBK, Irina Brilyova owns a stake in the management company of an apartment building in the west London district of Chiswick. She is the owner of the apartment in the building, purchased in February 2016 for £700,000. Navalny notes that neither Brilyova nor her husband has any business that would make such an expensive purchase affordable. He conjectures that Brilyov is handsomely paid for his work at Rossiya 1.

Navalny dubs Brilyov one of Putin’s principal propagandists, who never broadcasts anything negative about either the president or the Russian government. FBK’s investigation notes, in particular, that “The News on Saturday,” a weekly news wrap-up anchored by Brilyov, completely ignored the protest rallies against the pension reform, the unprecedented protests in Ingushetia, and the exposure of the GRU officers involved in poisoning the Skripals in [Salisbury]. Instead of analyzing the interview with “Petrov and Boshirov,” discussed around the world, Brilyov showed his audience a no less sensational news item, namely, the newly minted Duchess Meghan Markle closing the door herself as she exited a car.

Besides working on “The News on Saturday,” Brilyov is involved in the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and is deputy director for special projects at Rossiya 1.